Former Jharkhand minister gets bail in kidnap, murder case

The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday granted bail to former minister Enos Ekka, who is in jail after being convicted in a case of kidnap and murder of a para-teacher.

A division bench of justices Amitav Kumar Gupta and Rajesh Kumar allowed Ekka's bail petition saying no definite evidence was found against him in the case.

It ordered Ekka to furnish two sureties of Rs 10000 each, not to leave the state without its permission, deposit his passport and not influence witnesses.

Ekka in his petition said that the Simdega court had convicted him though the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad, where a CD that had purportedly recorded his voice and that of another accused in the case was sent, said it had no technology to examine it.

Ekka was a Jharkhand party MLA from Kolibera and a minister between 2005-2008 in minister in three governments led by Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren.

He was accused of kidnapping of Manoj Kumar on November 26, 2014 during the assembly election in the state. Kumar's body was recovered near a school the next day and Ekka was arrested from Thakurtoli in Simdega district.

The Simdega court had convicted Ekka on June 30, 2018 and sentenced him to life imprisonment on July 3 that year under IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 364A (kidnapping for ransom), 171F (undue influence at an election) and under Arms Act.

The court had also slapped a fine of Rs 1.65 lakh on him.

On September 16 this year, the Simdega court had handed life imprisonment to Peoples Liberation Front of India member Koleshwar Mahato in the same case.

Dhaneswar Baidik, who was among the accused in the case had also been sentenced to life imprisonment along with Ekka.